Workbench Tool Chest
As I accumulated tooling for the lathe and mill, I realized I had no place to put all of it. Everything was usually strewn about the floor. After watching various wood working videos on YouTube, I decided to try my hand at building a set of drawers. Everything was drawn up in AutoCad and the plans were reworked a few times until everything could be cut from 1 2'x4' piece of 3/4" plywood and 2 2'x4' pieces of 1/2". I ordered some 100 pound, full extension, ball bearing drawer slides on eBay and picked up the wood and handles at my local big box. The carcass was made from 3/4" birch plywood, rabbeted and glued. I predrilled and screwed the top to the sides as well for extra piece of mind. The plan was to hang this below the workbench and I didn't completely trust a glue joint. On the back, all 4 sides were rabbeted and the back panel was made from 1/2" birch plywood and glued in. Even though this won't be seen, I wanted a substantial piece with glue joints to add strength. The drawer boxes were made from 1/2" birch plywood as well. I cut a groove in all 4 sides and a tongue on all 4 sides of the bottom to fit. Everything was glued and I tacked the sides together since I don't have enough clamps.
Installing the drawer slides was no fun, but I used combinations of parallels to get the spacing correct on both sides. Luckily, I measured correctly so everything fit properly. The drawer faces were made of 1/2" oak and maple. I'm really happy with the stripe design, but my cheapness made it more difficult than it needed to be. My wood selection is limited to 2, 4, 6 and 8 foot lengths since I'm buying from a big box and my drawers were slightly wider than 24 inches. I didn't want to spend the money on 4' pieces only to not use most of it, or a longer piece and still end up with extra, so I bought 2' pieces, cut them up and glued the maple in between. It worked out well, but it would have been easier to make the fronts with one solid piece, cut a shallow dado with a router and inlay the maple strips. The faces were glued on to the drawer boxes only in the center, so that should allow for expansion and contraction. The glue is really only needed to help with alignment, since the handle screws hold the faces on at the edges.
I glued 1/2" oak strips on the edges of the 2 sides and bottom. The top and workbench were predrilled for 6 lag bolts (3 on each side). I used some blocks between the table top and the drawer unit because I needed to be able to get at the hardware that holds the machines to the table. Lag bolts were installed from the inside of the drawer unit up into the workbench. Once it was mounted, I cut a piece of 1/2" oak to fill the top gap, and that piece is removable to allow me access to the machine hold down bolts. Everything was finished with some tung oil. I put drawer liners in and made some drawer dividers out of 1/4" oak for the top drawer. I should have made it larger because it was immediately filled with no room for expansion.
This isn't Wood Whisperer quality, but it was my first real wood working project and I'm satisfied with it. If you don't know who the Wood Whisperer is, look him up on YouTube. His channel was my main inspiration for this project. Click on the pictures for larger images.
Installing the drawer slides was no fun, but I used combinations of parallels to get the spacing correct on both sides. Luckily, I measured correctly so everything fit properly. The drawer faces were made of 1/2" oak and maple. I'm really happy with the stripe design, but my cheapness made it more difficult than it needed to be. My wood selection is limited to 2, 4, 6 and 8 foot lengths since I'm buying from a big box and my drawers were slightly wider than 24 inches. I didn't want to spend the money on 4' pieces only to not use most of it, or a longer piece and still end up with extra, so I bought 2' pieces, cut them up and glued the maple in between. It worked out well, but it would have been easier to make the fronts with one solid piece, cut a shallow dado with a router and inlay the maple strips. The faces were glued on to the drawer boxes only in the center, so that should allow for expansion and contraction. The glue is really only needed to help with alignment, since the handle screws hold the faces on at the edges.
I glued 1/2" oak strips on the edges of the 2 sides and bottom. The top and workbench were predrilled for 6 lag bolts (3 on each side). I used some blocks between the table top and the drawer unit because I needed to be able to get at the hardware that holds the machines to the table. Lag bolts were installed from the inside of the drawer unit up into the workbench. Once it was mounted, I cut a piece of 1/2" oak to fill the top gap, and that piece is removable to allow me access to the machine hold down bolts. Everything was finished with some tung oil. I put drawer liners in and made some drawer dividers out of 1/4" oak for the top drawer. I should have made it larger because it was immediately filled with no room for expansion.
This isn't Wood Whisperer quality, but it was my first real wood working project and I'm satisfied with it. If you don't know who the Wood Whisperer is, look him up on YouTube. His channel was my main inspiration for this project. Click on the pictures for larger images.